Pro-choice campaigners bring message to Dungannon streets

by Gillian McDade

Pro-Choice activists took their message to the streets of Dungannon on Saturday.

They were highlighting their desire to see abortion rights implemented in Northern Ireland.

Dungannon Socialist Youth spokesperson Casey Slevin says the anti-choice movement only speaks for a small minority of people here.

"We got a lot of support from people, young and old. The vast majority want reform of our archaic abortion laws and most people are now pro-choice and support the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland, as polls demonstrate,” he says.

Casey says the political establishment clings to a patriarchal ideology which sees women only as vessels for childbearing.

“We have the right to control our own bodies.

"Banning abortion doesn't stop it. It only forces women to choose between travelling to England at great expense, creating a class divide in access, or face being criminalised for using safe abortion pills at home,” she says.

And she adds that the prosecution of women for taking drugs which are on the World Health Organisation's list of essential medicines must end immediately.

“We are committed to building a movement to force the political establishment to join us in the twenty-first century and recognise a woman's right to choose,” she adds.